Question

3. Pretend you are an HR manager and you heard that a union was trying to organize within your company. What would your role in the process look like? Would you be for or against union representation? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Being a manager, my responsibility and role in this situation are critical. Union representation is a legal process which can be conducted by the individuals in any workplace but the company still holds the right to allow a union to conduct their operations in their premises. This is why there needs to be adherence to the factors of consideration when we consider the aspect of union representation in our workplace. Once we have deduced that the employees are trying to organize a union representation or process, we need to be able to act quickly, as a buffer to be able to regulate their exposure and their influence in the workplace.

I am against union representation in my workplace due to the fact that the business organization and the employees have a much better understanding and working relationship and the union processes could [potentially end up compromising this understanding and relationship. We, therefore, need to realize that the need of an organization is synergy and therefore, the functions that are conducted by the management with respect to the needs of the employees are better suited to handle the problems issued in the organization. We also need to make sure that if some employees end up getting union representation, it does not affect the functions of the rest of the employees which are not represented by the unions. Our role as a manager is, therefore, preventing organization, conducting the process of negotiation as a buffer between the company and the union as well as maintaining a functional output from the daily processes of the company.